WHEN Viscount Muirshiel, the former Scottish Secretary of State, John (Jack) Maclay, died in August 1992, aged 86, a very full appreciation appeared in these pages. Written by R.D. Kernohan, it began: “Viscount Muirshiel was a man of many honours, and of honour. But he lived to so ripe an age as a friend of good causes and an elder statesman beyond politics that Jack Maclay (as he was until 1964) was almost forgotten as a once formidable politician. “He was a powerful Secretary of State for Scotland under Harold Macmillan (1957-62) but his political role never quite matched his abilities or potential.